Leah Chatta-Chipepa
Zambia / Uganda
I believe in promoting and defending the equal political, economic and social rights for women
in their diversity regardless of class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, work, religion and so on.
I work as the Executive Director for Akina Mama wa Afrika in Kampala,
Uganda. I am responsible for monitoring the organization’s consistent
achievement of its mission and financial objectives. I also provide leadership in
developing and implementing programs, organizational and financial plans;
as well as maintaining effective communications, publicising activities of the
organisation, and maintaining sound working relationships with stakeholders.
Finally I represent the organization’s programs and positions to partners and
ensure staff management, financial management and direction.
I am not shy to call myself a feminist nor to be labelled as one. I believe in
promoting and defending the equal political, economic and social rights for
women in their diversity regardless of class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, work,
religion and so on. These are rights that are enshrined in the Convention for the
Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Where
these rights are denied, it is my duty to fight for their recognition at a personal
level and also with others who stand to promote and defend the rights.
The challenges feminists face include the continued vilification of feminism as
being aggressive, exclusive, anti men, anti marriage etc. This has resulted in
a situation where even funders do not have women’s rights activists in their
organizations, or where funders shy away from funding feminist organizations.
In addition, donors have reduced funding for women’s rights to fund gender in
government programs to achieve the MDGs. Added to that the emergence of
the private sector as an engine of growth which is getting increased funding;
this sector rarely is involved in promoting gender equality let alone women’s
rights; and the picture concerning women’s rights appear dire.
Being a mother of grown up daughters we discuss women’s rights and how
these are actually a feminist agenda. I also from time to time use my daughters’
contacts on Facebook to discuss women’s rights and how these need to be
defended and promoted. I try to relate to current news items that I find in
newspapers e.g. incidents of women’s dress, rape, maternal death etc. In
my professional life, I am conscious about managing the organization in a
way that applies feminist principles to include: participation, building staff,
flexibility, transparency and accountability to mention a few.
I am a mentor for three young women from a disadvantaged community in
my country. I have encouraged them to stay in school because it is their right.
Having found myself in a position to influence allocation of funding to women’s
rights I accomplished this task and got the organization to see the importance
of promoting and defending women’s rights to address the imbalance in access
and opportunities for women. Finally, my activism includes making the decision
to work for a women’s organization that is a feminist organization and does
not shy away from being labelled.
I am inspired by the love and support I get from my mother, siblings, husband,
children and my grandchildren to work away from my home country for the
past thirteen years.
VPS II
. 35